New Refurbishment of Home cinema Multi Room system

jj123

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Hi

We are looking to upgrade some of our home cinema system what we currently have right now is
2 Arcam avr 250s 5.1 setups
2 Arcam diva 79 DVD players
2 HD Ready nec plasmas connected to the arcam avr 250s
Imerge s2000
Cctv
Sky HD Box
Freeview Hd box
6 tvs connected by rf distribution system

What I am wanting to do is upgrade the amps and dvd player.I was thinking of upgrading the amps to onkyo txnr 515s but will this be an increase or decrease of sound quality.Then i want to upgrade the dvds to sony BDPS490'S blu-ray players.

Then i was thinking of buying an octava hdmx44 hdmi matrix. The 4 inputs would be the sky hd box and the freeview HD box.Then i would also put in an apple tv and a new sound server.The 4 outputs would be 2 new tvs LGM620T and LGPA650T. Then connect the other two outputs to new hdmi amps. Which would then go to the nec plasmas.We are leaving the nec plasmas in right now. We would run 15m hdmi cables to each of these locations.We already have a system in place to bring back ir signals to the matrix.We would also connect one optical cable to one amp and one coaxial cable to the other amp from the sky box to give 5.1 sound.

The new soundserver would be an already home media server with an hdmi output.With the casatunes software installed and an asus Xonar D2 sound card.This would then give 4 sound outputs. These would be controlled from ios devices or a web browser which suits us.Which would be put into an already exisisting Sound distribution system.Will this give better sound quality over the imerge?We will also have one optical out aswell.If you have not heard of casatunes check it out here it has had fairly good reviews.
CasaTunes Software - Software

I was also going to upgrade the network to a 1gbps network.Using exisiting cat5e cable.Then adding a 24 port tp link 1 gbps switch.We would also hardwire all electronic devices appletv etc with cat 6 cable.We are also putting in new routers which is the tp-link TD 8960N and 2 wireless access points TP-WA901ND which will give us one massive wireless network.

Any Recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated.:)

It would also help if anybody knows the answer so some of my questions.Which are

Will the casatunes give better sound quality over the imerge?
Will the onkyo txnr 515s will this be an increase or decrease of sound quality compared the the arcam avr 250's. If not what amp will give better quality.
I am trying to look for a good 4x4 hdmi matrix is the octava good or could i get better.
Also should i change anything in my setup to make it better quality or a neater setup. Thanks
 
Last edited:
Does your IR system cover control of the Matrix, Sources and AVR's?

Joe
 
Yes it thankfully does.

Also to add to the post we are deciding to keep the avr 250's and use the hdmi matrix straight to the tv sources.We decided to keep the arcams as the onkyo's would not give better sound quality.And from each of the sources we are going to route digital optical cable or coaxial for surround sound.Unfortunately we will not be able to get hd lossless formats.But when the arcams do eventually fail we will be upgrading but i think the sound quality is excellent.Expected of arcam.We will be using one of these for each of the amps.

Octava HD41-ARC-UK - 4x1 HDMI ARC + Digital Audio switch


This will also allow us to connect individual devices to them when needed.

I also decided rather than replacing the dvd players with the sony bdps490s we would buy one sony bdps790 and connect to the hdmi matrix. Taking out the apple tv altogether.Then using an optical audio splitter put the two optical cables to the octava hdmi switchers.Though my only worry is will the 4x4 hdmi matrix ir codes interfere with the hdmi 1x4 switcher hopefully not.:(
 
Slightly confused as to why you need a matrix and 2 splitter? Why not just go for a matrix to all screens feeding audio direct to the AVR for those rooms leaving them out of the digital video chain at present? Not used NEC pdp for years so unsure how they will react EDID wise

Re audio quality alot is down to the source ie was it ripped as 128kbps MP3?
 
Hi.
Yeah we are using the matrix for distributing the hdmi signal but we need the switchers as it includes digital optical switchers but it also gives us the flexibilty to connect other devices as necessary.As the amp does not have enough inputs.We are using the optical splitter as we are distributing the signal to 2 amps not one.

It would be great if i could find an hdmi matrix with optical outputs as well.But i would only buy from a branded company.Unfortunately i do not think any of these exist. If you know one please leave the link or name.It would really help.

We have decided to change the blu ray player again. This time to the Panasonic DMP-BDT500EB. Much better i would say from the specs and reviews. I know it is not 4k upscaling but to be honest. I wont be using that any time soon. If you think there is a better blu ray i would love to know.
 
what speakers do you have? Personally while the onkyo's might have a shed load of features i think you'll find there amplification disapointing compared to the Arcam but then it really depends what speakers you have
 
It would be great if i could find an hdmi matrix with optical outputs as well.But i would only buy from a branded company.Unfortunately i do not think any of these exist. If you know one please leave the link or name.It would really help.
I think both Crestron DM and Savant Matrix switchers have this ability but they are at the very top end of the budget tree and not easily IR controlled. Kramer are bound to do something, the other option is to fit a HDMI Audio breakout unit on the output of the matrix to feed AVR that way each AVR stays on same Input (Toslink 1) and is fed the audio from the HDMI source via the matrix (not great for Sky etc)

Are the AVRS centrally located or inroom? Arcam sound good but even when new were well behind the Japanese in terms of connectivity. Unfortunately it can get messy and having lots of devices change input over IR control can be a recipe for headaches.
 
Bill Paul at NeoPro always comes up with a pretty unique/useful feature set :thumbsup:

Joe
 
Yeah that looks a pretty tidy solution but how much is it going to cost.If i am correct on my estimate would it not be cheaper to buy 2 arcam 400's. Money is not the problem it is the reason to buy it.I can buy it from the usa for around £4000. I think i may just go with what i am going to get as it will do the same job near enough to what the neopro will do.

Yeah i think i may go with the arcam avr 360's when the current one's i have the now fail.But until then there are staying.

I am also think of buying a new 16 channel cctv dvr.None of my camera's are hd so do not really need hd out but it would be nice.Plus d1 resolution.

Will need to check what type of speakers i have.Haven't looked in a while.
 
Hello jj123

AVR – with you on the sound quality vs. feature set argument!

HD audio – no matter which AVR you had its not always that simple trying to integrate HD audio capable sources into a distributed system!

NeoPro – no need to purchase from the US; our UK pricing is competitive with a self-import and has the benefit of UK backup!

NeoPro Vandenberg – won’t be for everyone but where it fits its feature set is pretty unique!

Octava HDMX44-UK + HD41-ARC-UK – we can do a ‘custom’ IR solution for the Matrix using one of the ‘large’ 36 button remotes we normally use with the HD44CATMX-UK HDMI over Twisted Pair Matrix.

Give me a shout to work out how best to support you!

Joe
 
Right Hi Joe

Thanks for the help. Yep i think i would be wasting my money if i bought the neo pro vanderberg.I wouldn't use all hdmi outputs only half of them.But thanks for the suggestion it is really appreciated.

Hd audio i have figured out a solution for that i am going to use the multichannel outputs from the blu ray player to go into the amp.Then run a coaxial for the other amp.(Even though i will not be able to get hd audio out of coaxial.)Then run everything else over optical and coax.

Amp i am keeping as already said.Yep i would rather sound quality over features.

Thanks for the advice guys it has helped alot.:)
 
Analogue Multi-channel can work well - though you'll need to ensure you have the ability to set Speaker Crossover and Distances in the BD as I'm pretty sure the Arcam will be 'non-processed' on the Multi-channel RCA Inputs!

Joe
 

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